


12/21 Drabbles

by gypsydancergirl (hauntedlittledoll)



Series: 12/21 [3]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s), Random Musical References for the Win
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-19
Updated: 2013-09-19
Packaged: 2017-12-27 01:00:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/972450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hauntedlittledoll/pseuds/gypsydancergirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Miscellaneous scenes outside the main storyline of the 12/21 'Verse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	12/21 Drabbles

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" by Jimmy Kennedy. J. M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" and Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" are both referred to as well.
> 
> Damian has no skill with small children.

"I do not understand."

Damian winced at the blank expression on his little brother’s face; this had been a bad idea.  “It is a toy—a stuffed bear commonly referred to …”

"… as a Teddy," Benjamin finished shortly.  "Small children carry them about—I know."  The boy looked away like he was not a small child at all.  "You should not be giving me one, Damian.  It serves no purpose."

"Toys do not have to serve a purpose," Damian muttered, earning his brother’s visible scorn.

Mother had given Benjamin a number of toys after all—chess sets and toy soldiers for strategy and leadership, books for his education, miniature motorized vehicles for mechanics, pets for command training and medicine, weapons for combat …

Damian inhaled, exhaled, and amended his counterargument.  “This toy is merely … a token of affection.  Tt.”

Benjamin scowled at his feet, tiny fists clenched at his sides.  Damian sent a pleading look over the child’s head to Lia, but the guardian he had chosen for Benjamin pretended not to understand as she returned to preparing the evening meal.

Damian was left standing awkwardly before a child that he had never understood with a clearly unwanted stuffed animal in his hands.

"A reminder?" Damian tried.  "When I am gone, this will remind you that I shall return … often with a present."  Bribery was a perfectly acceptable tactic.

Benjamin hesitantly accepted the toy at last, holding it out at arm’s length for a long moment before tucking it firmly under one arm and tugging at his brother’s shirt instead as the boy shifted his focus.

Relieved, Damian swept Benjamin up into his arms and took a seat.  Maybe they could just read quietly for a bit and the whole incident would be forgotten by Benjamin’s loosely-defined bedtime.

"Brother?" Benjamin murmured, toying with the material of Damian’s vest absently in one hand and running the other over the soft plush fur of the teddy bear.  "Did you ever have a bear?"

A ghastly little thing, white artificial fur with plastic eyes and a giant red heart stitched into its grasp bearing the message: “I wuv you beary much!”  Appendicitis struck civilian and hero alike, and apparently the hospital gift shop had been all out of the traditional “Feel better soon” bears.  Brown had settled.

"I did," Damian admitted reluctantly.

"What did you do with it?"

He had dropped it on a shelf, turning it around to obscure the offensive legend with it’s ghastly spelling, and tried to forget the toy’s existence between arguments with Fatgirl.

When Damian was angry, it took the brunt of his displeasure and practiced the art of flight with great frequency.  When Damian was sorry, the bear got the reluctant, half-hearted, and muttered apology meant for Brown.

"I kept it as a memento of someone close to me."  Damian frowned, brushing the memories aside, and reached for their book.

Benjamin’s education in the childhood classics was sorely lacking.  They had finished _Through the Looking Glass_ , and were now a few chapters into _Peter Pan_.  Privately, Damian thought both Alice and Peter were on their way to costumed criminal careers if their fantasy world continued in this vein, and was heartened by Benjamin’s critique of their leadership and/or respective missions.

"I don’t have it anymore," he explained, noticing Benjamin’s continued interest in the bear.  "I was forced to leave it behind in Gotham."

"You should have replaced it while in Germany," Benjamin informed him archly, tightening his grip on the toy in a not so subtle demonstration of ownership.  There would clearly be no offer to share the toy—not from this child, whether he appreciated the gift or not.

Damian hummed obligingly.  “I suppose I no longer need one.”

The poor bear was shoved at arm’s length again as the child went stiff in Damian’s hold, scowling at the floor again for good measure.  “I do not need one either.”

And Damian had talked himself back into trouble again.  He wasn’t meant for this.  He had no skill with children.  He should have had Lia bestow the toy while Damian was safely out of the country on his next mission.

So help him, Lia was laughing silently into a dishcloth as she watched him flounder.

"No," Damian agreed cautiously, "of course not.  Only … I thought you might like this one."

The bear inched cautiously upward for a proper inspection of its plush form, soft fur, and gleaming glass eyes.  Benjamin sighed heavily, his little form sinking comfortably into Damian’s grasp.  “I suppose it is an attractive-enough creature,” the four year old conceded.  “It will be a great tool in convincing the enemy to underestimate me, Brother.  Thank you.”

"Of course," Damian returned, and hastily began to narrate the treason of Tinkerbell before any further conversation could derail.

… Benjamin slept with the bear every night from the very beginning.


End file.
